Synod rejects the errors of those . . .
III. Who teach that in spiritual death the spiritual gifts have not been separated from man’s will, since the will in itself has never been corrupted but only hindered by the darkness of the mind and the unruliness of the emotions, and since the will is able to exercise its innate free capacity once these hindrances are removed, which is to say, it is able of itself to will or choose whatever good is set before it — or else not to will or choose it. This is a novel idea and an error and has the effect of elevating the power of free choice, contrary to the words of Jeremiah the prophet: “The heart itself is deceitful above all things and wicked” (Jer. 17:9); and of the words of the apostle: “All of us also lived among them” (the sons of disobedience) “at one time in the passions of our flesh, following the will of our flesh and thoughts” (Eph. 2:3).
Building upon the previous article, the error addressed in paragraph 3 is that according to the Dutch Arminians, the human will remains largely undamaged by Adam’s fall–although human willing may be influenced by inherited corruption impacting the mind and emotions. Since the will supposedly operates independently–apart from original righteousness and holiness–despite the fall of Adam, the human will remains free possessing the power of contrary choice. This supports the unbiblical notion of semi-Pelagianism that although human nature is damaged by the fall, since the will is not part of that nature, fallen sinners retain the power to choose Christ, or not, depending upon one’s greatest inclination at any given moment. So, to summarize the error being addressed, whatever damage may have been done to human nature in the Fall, the human will was not significantly damaged.
The authors of the Canons point out that nowhere does the Bible allow for human nature to be weakened by the fall, while the human will remains largely unaffected. If the human heart is “deceitful” above all things, then the human will cannot operate “neutrally,” apart from sin’s effects upon the heart–which is but another way of saying that the person is at their core enslaved to sin. Paul says people are by nature “sons of disobedience” and apart from a work of God’s grace changing our nature (regeneration), we all follow the passions of the flesh (the sinful nature) in all our thinking and doing. The will remains enslaved by sin until acted upon by God. We have no more power if left to ourselves to choose Christ, than a dead person does to raise themselves from the dead.
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